74th Independence Day: A tribute to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

New Delhi, Aug 04: Subhash Chandra Bose is called the father of India's freedom fight.

He revived the Indian National Army, popularly known as 'Azad Hind Fauj' in 1943.

Mostly popular by the name of, Netaji's, sudden disappearance from Taiwan led to surfacing of number of theories which were never investigated thoroughly that left people of all generation in the dark about one of the most beloved leaders of India.

Early life and stepping in the revolutionary

Bose was born on 23 January, 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa to Janakinath Bose and Prabhavati Devi.

Bose was a very intelligent and sincere student. He was strongly influenced by Swami Vivekananda's teachings.

The son of a wealthy and prominent Bengali lawyer, Bose studied at Presidency College, Calcutta (Kolkata).

Subhash reportedly beat and thrashed one of his British teachers E F Otten in college. The professor made a racist remark against the Indian students. As a result, Subhash Chandra Bose was expelled from the college and banished from Calcutta University.

He then was sent by his parents to the University of Cambridge in England to prepare for the Indian Civil Service.

In 1920, he passed the civil service examination. But after hearing of the nationalist turmoils in India, he resigned his candidacy and hurried back to India in April 1921.

In December of the same year, Bose was arrested and imprisoned for organizing a boycott of the celebrations to mark the Prince of Wales's visit to India.

With and Vs Congress

Subhash Chandra Bose worked under the leadership of Chittaranjan Das, an active member of Congress in Calcutta. Bose would regard Das as his political guru.

Congress party was always lenient and never in a position to oppose. Bose became a strong leader in Congress and made brave attempt to mould the entire party differently.

His opposed against Gandhi's philosophy. This led Gandhi and other leaders hurt and they opposed him.

Eventually this led to 'Subhash Chandra Bose against entire congress party'. During election, Bose got elected with higher votes but the closer aide of Gandhi got elected.

In order to acknowledge outside support on getting freedom he journeyed to Germany, Japan during the world war II.

Nehru at that time said "If Subhash would bring soldiers from outside and enter India, then I would be the first person to wield a sword and oppose him."

Formation of Azad Hind Fauj

The role of Indian National Army or the Azad Hind Fauj is said to be buried in the pages of the revolutionary struggle.

Azad Hind Fauj was another name of Bose' Indian National Army which was inspired by the concepts of Netaji who planned to take foreign help to get rid of the country of British reign.

Azad Hind Fauj, the army organisation was founded by Rash Behari Bose and comprised Indian prisoners of war in Singapore with about 45,000 Indian soldiers in 1942.

A year after Netaji escaped house arrest in Culcutta and reached Singapore, and took leadership of the Azad Hind Fauj. Rash Behari handed over them to Netaji.

The Fauj was revived with the determination and leadership of Netaji and entered in the freedom fight portray in 1943.

Fauj of youth

By the time the Azad Hind Fauj was formally established, it had a strong strength of 85,000 troops. Bose believed in the power of the youth. He inspired the soldiers to give up on everything and be part of the fight of the nation. By the time the Azad Hind Fauj or Indian National Army was formally established, it was strong with 85,000 troops.

The exceptional courage, determination and sacrifice the Azad Hind Fauj showed, reached the people of India and the nation witnessed a surging wave of revolution.
Disappearance of Bose

It was said that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash but his body was never recovered. There are different theories on his disappearance. The government of India till now set up a number of committees to investigate the case.

The reports of Justice Mukherjee Commission, tabled in Parliament on 17 May, 2006 stated, "Bose did not die in the plane crash and the ashes at Renkoji temple are not his".

Though the findings were rejected by the government of India.